Dubai, UAE · PrivateThe Arbor School is a British school in Al Furjan in Dubai, and the heart of it is an ecological approach: the school describes itself as a place where learning is tied to living nature, and it keeps living classrooms and a biofarm on campus. The curriculum is the national curriculum of England extended with eco-literacy; at Key Stage 4 the school offers GCSE, IGCSE and vocational BTEC, and in the sixth form A-level and Level 3 BTEC, with a pupil taking three or four subjects. The languages are French, Spanish and Arabic right through the secondary stage, and French and Spanish are offered at IGCSE and A-level. There are about fifteen hundred pupils and more than 83 nationalities, with boys and girls in roughly equal numbers. The day runs from 7:30 to 15:20 with small differences between year groups, and on Friday everyone finishes at 11:30. Medical care is in-house: a health centre with a doctor and nurses on staff full time, and separately a wellbeing service offering counselling. Security is round the clock and controls access to the campus as well, and the school keeps its child protection rules to KHDA requirements. Meals are eaten in the school's own The Farmhouse, a farm-to-table dining room with seasonal produce and vegetarian and vegan options. Buses run through STS, under KHDA and RTA rules. Among activities the school names its house system, the Thrive programme, sport and the Arbor Enrichment Experience.
Key facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
BSO · accreditationWhat stands behind each entry
A scheme of the UK Department for Education: a school abroad is inspected against the standards for independent schools in England, including safeguarding and the standards for boarding. The inspections are done by independent inspectorates approved by the department, and the inspectorates themselves are monitored annually by Ofsted. The reports are published in full on the government website.
What the badge means for this school. The school has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Programmes of the University of Cambridge: the school teaches to Cambridge syllabuses and enters its pupils for exams that Cambridge marks itself. IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate. A-Level is the senior years, and their results are what British and many other universities admit on.
What this means for this school. The papers are marked by Cambridge, not by the school, so a leaver's grade does not depend on how strict their own teachers are with them. To enter pupils for these exams a school has to be registered as a Cambridge exam centre; registration as a centre is permission to run exams rather than accreditation of the school, and it says nothing about the quality of teaching. IGCSE is taken at around Year 10 or 11 and A-Level in the final years, and it is the A-Level results that carry a pupil into British and many other universities.
A British vocational qualification from Pearson: not an academic course with an exam at the end, but a programme of practical assignments in a particular trade, from engineering and business to art and sport.
What this means for this school. Teaching and assessment work differently from A-level: instead of written exams there is a run of practical assignments marked by the school, while Pearson checks the school itself and samples the work. British universities do accept BTEC, but not all of them and not for every course: level 3 carries the same UCAS points as A-level, and that is what a family aiming at a particular university should look at. For a child who needs the classic academic route, BTEC is not a replacement for A-level but a different path.